The California Mission System

The mission system in California began in 1769 when King Charles III of Spain ordered military and missionaries to claim land across the western coast of America, in what is now California. From 1769 to 1823, 21 missions were founded, as the Spanish colonized and converted natives to Christianity. 

From 1769 to 1834, approximately 89,000 people were baptized at the missions, and of that number 84,659 were Native Americans (Bowman 1960). The data visualization below shows how many Natives vs. how many whites were baptized at each specific mission, starting from 1769 when Mission San Diego de Alcala was founded and sorted chronologically from when each mission was founded.

In 1823, the last mission was founded in Sonoma. Only 11 years later, in 1834, the entire mission system ended due to Mexican secularization of Alta California, leaving most of the missions to be abandoned. In 1848, California was claimed by the United States and officially became the 31st state in 1850. Since then, the missions have been preserved as an essential part of California's history.